SurveyMonkey Audience Screams For Tax Day

Tax Day. For some, it’s the promise of a long awaited refund. For others, it’s a last minute scramble to find those W-2 forms. For most, it’s a day that’s sentiment is best evoked by Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.”

But Tax Day comes every year, whether we’re prepared or not. (That was a little Tax Day pun…get it? Prepared. Ha!)

To commemorate this most hallowed IRS holiday, we decided to see how the general public fared during the 2011 tax year.

Using SurveyMonkey Audience, we surveyed over 400 respondents—targeting for employed Americans over the age of 18. To get the respondents’ feedback on this year’s filing experience, first we needed to find out if they’d actually completed the task.

74% of respondents get gold stars for actually completing their taxes. Another 6% filed an extension, and 18% decided to take their chances with the IRS and didn’t file at all.

Of those respondents who filed their taxes, the majority used a tax preparer (41%) or online tax software (40%). When asked to identify the online software used to file, an overwhelming 74% reported using Turbo Tax, with H&R Block coming in at distant second with 14%.

When it came to payment for filing taxes, interestingly, the two most prominent responses were either free (27%) or more than $100 (32%).

For a lucky 68% of respondents, no additional taxes were paid when they filed, but 29% had to pass along some cash to Uncle Sam—with 40% of those paying more than $1000. However, 64% of respondents reported they would received a federal refund, and 53% would receive a state refund.

And for those who received a refund, we surfaced the most commonly occurring terms for what they’d do with their winnings.

While the majority of respondents responsibly reported that they planned on paying off bills and expenses, many of respondents also planned on taking a vacation. To which we say, please take us with you!

How did your Tax Day fare compared to our respondent’s? Are you doing something exciting with your refund? Interested in running your own Tax Day survey? Let us know in the comments section below.

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